Flash cards are well known tools for presenting educational facts to young learners. A typical flash card presents an educational element on an obverse side of the card, and an associated educational element on the reverse side. For example, a typical flash card can show an arithmetic problem on the obverse, and the solution on the reverse. Other type flash cards can be used to teach children colors, numbers, letters of the alphabet, names of animals and inanimate objects, etc.
Flash cards do have certain drawbacks. Since the front and back sides are the only display surfaces available, only two educational elements per card can be presented. In this way, a large deck of flash cards are required, which can take up much space and may require much fumbling on the part of a user to sort and organize the cards. Also, it can happen that flash cards are dropped or placed with the wrong side facing the user. In this way, a user can see an “answer” before seeing the “question” and this spoils the lesson of the flash card for at least a given session.
Some flash card types are known which include a separate component for concealing the answer side of a card. But such separate components are a drawback since the use of the flash card is dependent on the component. If the component is lost, the usefulness of the flash cards is diminished. Also, such additional components require separate manufacture, adding to the production and shipping costs of a set of flash cards.
Also, in a typical flash card, the questions and answers are presented on opposite sides which cannot be viewed simultaneously. Thus, the cards must be flipped, and this may pose an impediment to learning since the association of educational elements cannot be directly reinforced.